My name is Mike Magruder, the founder of Happy Monkey Snowboards, Inc., which was from 2003-2010 a very small business where I built custom snowboards by hand. Although I have closed Happy Monkey I continue to build snowboards for myself and my close friends. I’m generally obsessed with snowboard construction, and I’m always trying to learn new ways to improve my processes, equipment, and final result.

You can contact me directly via email through this wiki, or via private message to Head Monkey in the forum at Skibuilders.com.

Background

I have no formal background in anything that would be helpful manufacturing snowboards or running a snowboard business. Everything I know about snowboard construction, woodworking, CNC, or machining I learned by trial and error, talking with other builders, and the odd course or two on machining at a local technical college.

My formal education is in computer science. I hold a MS in CS from George Mason University. I’ve worked at a variety of different software companies since 1989. Most recently I’ve worked at Microsoft since 1998 on the Common Language Runtime, SQL Server, and most recently Bing.